


An Interview With Igor

by KrysKrossZee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Interviews, Pre-Canon, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:22:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29767200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrysKrossZee/pseuds/KrysKrossZee
Summary: Rita Skeeter interviews Igor Karkaroff about his life before he became a Death Eater.
Relationships: Igor Karkaroff/Andromeda Black Tonks
Collections: Draco’s Den Scattergories





	An Interview With Igor

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts used-
> 
> Draco's Den Scattergories: Letter WILD
> 
> Words: Igor Karkaroff, Invisibility Cloak, Interview, Interrupted Declaration of Love, Ibrox Stadium, Illegibilus.

The tapping of a quill on a piece of parchment was the thing that pulled Igor back to the present. He had somehow gotten lost in his memories from before the war, from before everything had gone totally pear-shaped. He blinked a couple of times as his eyes met with that of the heinous reporter Rita Skeeter who was smirking at him in a way that made his skin crawl. She really was loathsome, but as the Durmstrang headmaster he'd had to agree to this interview, for Krum's sake and as an attempt to save his crumbling reputation and that of his school.

"Next question," Skeeter continued when she saw that she had his attention again, "I know we agreed that your life as one of He Who Shall Not Be James's followers is off limits, but what about how you became a Death Eater in the first place?"

Igor blinked a couple of times, though he tried to keep all other reactions from his face and features. How was it that this woman seemed to know exactly where his mind went to? It was terrifying the way that she was able to get inside the heads of people that she was interviewing.

He didn't think that this was something that he could at all relive, let alone was it something that he could talk about, but he knew that she was unlikely to be able to drop it even if he asked her to. He decided to deflect her instead.

"There wasn't one particular thing that made me decide that." He told her, his mind casting back to his youth.

**

"Presenting Weronika Karkaroff and her son Igor."

Igor hated Pureblood Balls, he hated the indigo dress robes that his mother always insisted that he wear, and he especially hated that he didn't know anyone at these events. He was fortunate enough that his mother had decided to send him to Durmstrang, but it did mean that during the summer when he was home and out in society it meant that he was usually left out on his own.

His mother let go of his arm when they reached the bottom of the staircase and with a smile and a small nod, they parted ways. She came to these events to socialise with the other Pureblood Mothers - and he knew that she eventually wanted to find him a wife. Igor wasn't exactly on board with her plans, but he knew better than to argue with the woman who had given him life, the woman who made sure that he had a roof over her head and food in his belly.

He left her to her task and headed off in the direction of the patio, glad that the doors were open out onto the grounds of the Estate. He always made a point of taking in as much fresh air as possible during these things, but tonight he found that he was not alone out there.

He couldn't help but down as he took in the sight of a dark haired beauty standing there unchaperoned with her back to him. He knew as he walked towards her that he had seen her before, and while he was unsure whether he should even bother her, he found that he just had to talk to her, to at least reintroduce himself.

**

"So you were friends with the Blacks?" Skeeter's eyebrow was raised as she looked him up and down and Igor did his best to ignore how furiously the quill to her right was scribbling away. This was sure to fuel her gossip columns for a while anyway.

"I'm not sure if you could call us friends." Igor hummed as he let himself mull over that term. Andromeda Black - now Tonks - was someone that he had admired back then, someone that he had felt that he could talk to from the moment that they had met and even though she had these absurd ideals about how muggles and wizardkind could live side by side she was someone that he enjoyed the company of. Or at least he had enjoyed spending time with her before the war.

"What would you call it then?" Skeeter asked and Igor frowned as he tried to figure out what he and Andromeda had been. Friends was probably the best term, he concluded, though he had always wanted there to be something more to their relationship.

**

"Where are we?" Igor asked with a frown as he cast a glance all around them. Andromeda had told him that they were going to a stadium, but this place looked nothing like the Quidditch stadiums that he had been to in the past - for a start there were no goalposts, so the chances of this being a wizarding stadium were pretty slim.

Andromeda just threw him a smile as she pulled the invisibility cloak that they had used to sneak in through the backdoors of the stadium, which should have been Igor's first clue that they weren't meant to be there but he had found that he was just glad that he was getting to spend some time with Andromeda that he hadn't thought to question any of it until they finally stopped.

"Andy..?" He asked slowly, pressing her to answer him. They were seventeen now, they couldn't really be seen to be sneaking around, especially not when his mother had dropped several hints that she had almost found a girl who was suitable to be his wife, and he was sure that by now Andromeda's parents would have found a husband for her once she left school in a year's time - though they tended not to talk about that part of their lives.

"Isn't it gigantic?" She asked and he watched her twirl around, her skirt billowing out around her and revealing the jeans that she wore underneath with were more patches than denim now. He wondered if that was a fashion choice or if she only had one pair because her parents were stuck in a time where girls shouldn't wear trousers, much less jeans. "I wanted to show you one of my favourite places before I lost you to that school of yours once more."

"I never took you for a sport lover." Igor commented as he watched her twirl before she stopped dead to face him, her eyes sparkling in that way that drove him wild, in that way that made his heart skip a beat. He wanted to kiss her but he knew that he couldn't. He couldn't risk damaging her reputation like that. It was risky enough that they were there alone.

"This is the Ibrox Stadium." She told him, though her time suggested that it should have been obvious and Igor tried to fight the light blush that was threatening to creep up over his cheeks at his embarrassment and how intense her stare was. "Sure, they play football here - no, I won't explain that to you - but they also have music concerts here. My boyfriend took me to one at the start of the summer and it was- What's wrong?"

Igor felt sick. Of course she had a boyfriend. He didn't know why it was such a big deal to him when he had always known that there was no possible way that the pair of them could be together, despite the crush that he had had on her for what felt like forever.

"Nothing." Igor muttered as he tried to shake off his pain. There was no point in getting upset with her when he had had plenty of opportunity previously to tell her how he felt and yet he had chosen to remain silent out of a sense of duty to his mother and to her family. They were not meant to be and that was that.

**

"I suppose that the boyfriend that she left you for is that of her now husband Edward Tonks?" Skeeter seemed to be twisting his words and making out that Andromeda had left him for someone else, but Igor knew that there was no point in arguing with the woman unless he wanted to make things much worse for himself, something that he couldn't afford if he wanted to keep his job at Durmstrang.

"I can only assume so." Igor gave a small shrug, letting himself pretend that it wasn't a big deal when it still crushed him to this very day. He had fallen out of Pureblood Society after his last meeting with Andromeda, and while this was not the main reason that he hadn't taken a wife, he had to admit that it had been a contributing factor.

"Was that the last time that you saw her?" Skeeter asked and while Igor knew that he shouldn't give her an answer, he found that he couldn't help it; his words were going to run on without him whether he liked it or not.

"It wasn't." He admitted. "I saw her one last time after that, at the beginning of the next summer, after we had both graduated."

**

"You can't be here, Andy." Igor was whispering even though he knew that there was no-one around. His mother had taken a sleeping draught and she wouldn't be awake until the next afternoon at the earliest.

"I just… wanted to invite you to a party." Andromeda said slowly, eyeing him up and down in a way that told Igor that she was reconsidering coming over here and while he didn't want to go to her party, he didn't want her to feel like he didn't want to be friends with her. He didn't want to lose her from his life after all.

"A party?" He found himself asking despite his better judgement. Even if he didn't want to go, he had never been invited to a party in person before. Invites were only ever organised through his mother so he wasn't exactly sure what the protocol for this was.

"Yes, a party. It's kind of a housewarming and engagement party all in one." Andromeda told him with a smile, but Igor couldn't return the smile as hard as he tried. He wanted to be happy for her, but he didn't think that he could be when he hurt this much inside.

"You're…" He began but he trailed off when he felt as though his entire mouth had dried up so instead he allowed for himself to lean back against the wooden railing of his porch, his heart hammering in his chest. He let himself look away out towards the moon which was shining over his head, allowing him to take some strength from its light.

"Igor, are you okay?" She asked softly as she reached out to touch his arm. Igor felt as if his skin was on fire underneath her touch and while he wished that she wouldn't try to comfort him, he also hoped that she wouldn't ever let go.

"I… I'm fine." He said quietly as he turned his full attention back to Andromeda who had fixed her gaze on his face so intently he wondered if she could see all the way through to his soul. "I don't think I can go to your party." He told her, wanting to apologise to her but at the same time he knew that he couldn't. "Listen, Andy.. There's something that I need to tell you, even though I know it's too late but -"

His words were however cut off as a silver bearlike patronus came swimming into view and wound its way between them.

"That's Teds', sorry. I better see what he wants." Andromeda said to him with a small smile.

**

"Well that's a truly pathetic tale." Skeeter commented. "My readers are going to eat this up."

Igor shook his head quickly at that. "That's where you're wrong." He told her as he lifted his wand end tapped it on tb parchment that the quill had been scribbling away on all this time. "Illegibilus."


End file.
